Featured Image: Jessie Buckley, from left, winner of the award for best actress in a leading role for “Hamnet,” Michael B. Jordan, winner of the award for best actor in a leading role for “Sinners,” and Amy Madigan, winner of the award for actress in a supporting role for “Weapons,” pose in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
The Academy Awards saw some of the toughest competition it has had in a while for accolades this year. ABC broadcasted the 98th Academy Awards ceremony on Mar. 15, 2026, and it lived up to the hype that it built over the last few months. The host from last year, Conan O’Brien, returned as host once again to entertain the audience with silly antics and comedic guest speaker segments.
The Oscars had winners that it had never seen before, including Michael B. Jordan. Jordan was possibly the biggest winner of the night. He has never been nominated for, or won, an Oscar before this year, despite the fact that he’s put out phenomenal work for years. This year, he was acknowledged by the Academy for his role(s) in “Sinners.”
Jordan received the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as gangster twin brothers Smoke and Stack. Jordan winning this was the predicted outcome by many viewers who have been keeping up with the Oscar awards as of late. His dedication to not one but two roles is an effort that was clearly not in vain. He made both brothers feel distinctly different from each other down to the way they stood.
On the other hand, Jessie Buckley was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her role as grieving mother Agnes Shakespeare in “Hamnet.” Buckley brings such passion to her role that it is easy to see how she won over her competitors. She had previously been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2022 for her role in “The Lost Daughter.” Despite her loss here, she kept the same determination for her performance in “Hamnet,” resulting in her win. Buckley deserved her flowers and more for her portrayal of Agnes which showed how she’s not just the wife of Shakespeare but the mother of “Hamnet.”
The powerful cinematography of films in 2025 will likely be studied by professionals for years to come. The winner for Best Cinematography, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, made history by becoming the first woman and person of color to win the award for her work in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. This is a massive milestone for cinematography and it will likely inspire the next generation of filmmakers to work even harder to achieve the same level that Arkapaw has. She, alongside the rest of the nominees, put their best foot forward with their work this year, showing that love for the craft of cinematography has not died down one bit. If anything, it has been exaggerated across the industry as of late.
The Academy Awards is not only about celebrating a love of cinema, but also the people who make them. The Academy mainly showcases this with their annual “In Memoriam” segment, a section of the program dedicated to honoring directors, actors, producers and more in the industry that have passed away since the previous ceremony. This is always a lovely segment filled with such kind words for those who are gone, but this year the Academy received massive backlash for this segment.
A large number of craftspeople passed last year and not all of them were included in the segment. Workers like James Van Der Beek, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Eric Dane and David Keighley are a few among the many who were left out of this segment. This caused outrage online from many who submitted these names in the hope that they would acknowledge them during the broadcast.
The Academy has since responded, stating that the choice was made by a committee made up of different members across the organization. This committee is responsible for going through this list of names and determining which ones will appear during the broadcast, taking the runtime of the ceremony into consideration. Unfortunately, this means that the choice to cut these names was made in favor of runtime. This seemingly happens every year at the Oscars, and the committee receives backlash every time. It’s untoward, but it’s become a staple of the Oscars and likely won’t change anytime soon.
The category for Best Picture was the most contested that it’s been in a very long time. Films like “Marty Supreme,” “Bugonia,” “Sinners,” “One Battle After Another,” etc., are all standout films in a year chock-full of them. In the end, though, there can only be one winner. When it was all said and done, the film taking home the title of Best Picture was “One Battle After Another.”
After the nominees for the category were announced, it felt as if fans had already decided on which films they thought deserved the acclaim. It truly came down to “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” for what the people thought deserved to win it the most. Despite this loss, it’s important to understand the cultural impact both of these movies had. It’s nice to see that stories with complicated plots and characters can still be enjoyed by a wide audience. All nominated films exemplified the absolute best of cinema and that’s something that everyone involved with each of these projects can be proud of.
The 98th Academy Awards ceremony has come and gone and it brought many amazing moments with it. The very best of 2025 received their flowers and showcased a variety of talents from many different craftspeople. It was an iconic year for cinema, but it was only the beginning of what seems to be a renaissance. The pipeline of movies for 2026 and 2027 is getting larger every day with each film being more promising than the last. With everything changing across the globe, it’s nice to know that films are as reliable as ever.
